Elevator Pitch
by Liv Wilder
Summary: Still trying to fix that heartrending Season 2 finale all these years later. Two-shot.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This is just a quick, fun detour to put me back in the Castle mindset so I can finish Slow Burn. I've spent the last five months reworking my novel which has made it hard to switch horses, so to speak. I struggle to cope when two sets of characters are muttering inside my head. _

_Jumping off from the end of the heart-clenching season 2 finale, this story is a two-shot._

* * *

_ Elevator Pitch_

_Chapter 1_

When Castle turned to leave with his arm casually draped around Gina's waist, Kate felt as if a sinkhole had opened up around her leaving her marooned on an island for one. She watched as her partner walked away. Her world, when she thought back to that moment, seemed stained with pink. Whether from the tint of Gina's Burberry mac and the candyfloss glint of her expensive hair, or the color of her own humiliation, this tainted wash stayed with her.

A haze.

An afterimage.

Pathological illusory palinopsia.

Her heart drowned in that pink froth until she finally turned her back on this pitiful, romantic scene and closed her eyes, fighting the tightness in her throat.

_"I thought you two didn't get along?"_ What had possessed her to say that? As if they'd suddenly wake up at this reminder to be at one another's throats and the path would magically clear for Kate and Castle to go…where?

Why had she considered following him anywhere?

_"He's such a little boy sometimes,"_ Gina had said, and Castle had performed right on cue like a trained puppy for mommy with the simpering smile and the cuteness overload.

Ugh!

Her ears were ringing, her whole body itching, tortured by a strangling discomfort that made her want to crawl out of her own skin and slip through the nearest crack in the floor. She never made herself vulnerable, not at work and certainly not for any man.

_What was she thinking?_

She pursed her lips and swallowed roughly. Her throat bobbed, her ears popped, she dug her nails into her hipbones until it hurt worse than this car crash of a rejection. Anything to distract herself from this awful moment.

Maybe this thing between them had been an illusion all along. Maybe her first reaction to being invited to Castle's Hamptons house had been the right one. Her gut had said laugh it off. This is just a poorly dressed up excuse to see you in a bikini. But then she had allowed him to wear her down with his apparent sincerity, with his talk of Alexis and their family traditions, by that photo of his stunning home. She thought he had turned into a grownup. Turned out he was a grown-up until Gina called, and then he magically turned back into the man-child he was when they first met.

_"See you in the fall?" _

This stupid, needy, hopeful question raced around inside her head making her want to vomit. Vomit or punch a wall. Maybe both.

When she turned to see the bank of pitying faces peering at her through the break-room window, the pink tint came flooding back. Then it deepened to red. She couldn't handle the sympathetic noises they were bound to make if she went back in there and tried to drown herself in Budweiser. So she gave them an embarrassed little wave, forced a self-effacing smile, and headed to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face before returning to her desk to carry on working. Since work was the one thing she evidently could do well. Maybe the only thing, but still, she'd take it over pity and her empty apartment any day.

Montgomery and the guys left quickly after that, chasing home to their Memorial Day weekend plans. After a hug from Lanie and a shoulder squeeze from Ryan, the bullpen emptied out on a quiet murmur of kind words and open invitations that everyone knew Kate Beckett would never take up. Only Esposito lingered, a strange angry energy about him until Kate forced a smile and waved him away, too.

Alone in the silence, she sat back and closed her eyes. She'd had plans. She had a smørgåsbord of plans until she blew her life up, and now she had nothing ahead but days of solitude to ponder her mistakes. How to lose two guys in one day. Her life was now a B-list rom-com. She shook her head in disbelief and let out a low growl. She would use the weekend to put herself back together, to patch the little hole in her heart that had opened up the second she spotted the shift in Castle's relationship with his second ex-wife…and publisher.

She switched off her computer, packed her bag, and tucked her chair away. Three days to get her head together. Three days to wipe Richard Castle out of her life once and for all. She paused to stare at his ratty old chair and she shook her head, again.

"See you in the fall, my ass," she muttered, giving the leg of the old chair a kick as she walked past.

Trust your gut next time, Kate, she told herself as she walked to the elevator with her back straight and her shoulders forced back. "Trust your magical gut," she said aloud to the empty bullpen as she slapped the call button with the flat of her hand.

When the elevator doors slid open, she stepped aboard without looking up. She jabbed the button for the parking level and collapsed against the inside of the car, letting the wall hold her up.

The doors closed, but before the descent could begin she heard the sound of throat-clearing behind her and she froze. To her absolute horror when she spun around, there, lounging in the back corner, was none other than Richard Castle.

* * *

The elevator began to sink in time with her heart.

Her voice betrayed every ounce of shock she felt at finding herself face-to-face with him at all, let alone so freaking soon and in such a confined space. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, following that little number with, "And where's your ex-wife-slash-publisher-slash…_girlfriend?_"

Small though the space was she looked around to make sure that dinky, perfectly-put-together Gina wasn't tucked delicately in a corner. Or still under Castle's wing for that matter.

"Well, it's good to see you, too, detective."

Castle smirked at her, his eyes dancing with the easy humor of a man with no real-world problems to trouble him. His tone was on the smug side of the sliding scale Kate was familiar with. A scale that ran from "charming and sincere" at one end to "what the hell was I thinking?" on the other.

She stammered, "Wh…what are you doing back here? Everyone is gone." This last word hit the discordant note of disappointment that Kate had been fighting. It came out sounding tremulous, broken, off-key. At that moment, she hated herself even more than she hated him.

Castle tilted his head slowly and smiled. Kate felt shame-borne fury building in her chest. "_You're_ still here," he said pleasantly, as though that made everything clear.

Before she could open her mouth to ask him what the fuck, the elevator jerked to a violent stop and the lights went out.

"Oh, for the love of all things holy," Kate muttered under her breath, quickly groping in the dark for something to hold onto.

When she found something, it felt soft and warm beneath her fingers. Once her brain confirmed that the floor was still the floor and the elevator was no longer moving, she gently squeezed the something soft and warm and reluctantly let go.

Castle made a gasping sound that did not help and yet did not disappoint, either. For the first time in the last half hour, Kate found herself smiling. Her skin flushed, her face and neck grew suddenly hot and pink. This, she was glad her partner could not see.

Like a blind woman, she reached her hands out in front of her, quickly locating the control panel in the wall with the red emergency button. But when she pushed it, nothing happened.

"Why is nothing happening?" Castle said.

Kate bit the inside of her cheek. Instead of firing off a sarcastic response, she fished her cell phone out of her bag and illuminated the screen. Her stomach dropped like the elevator. "I…I'm out of service. Can you⏤"

"Already on it," Castle said.

The glow of her partner's phone lit his face from below sending up eerie shadows that accentuated his features to monstrous proportions.

"Anything?" Kate said.

Castle shook his head. "Cell service must be down."

Kate pressed a hand to her chest. "Oh, God. Which means…"

"Blackout," they said simultaneously.

Castle's phone screen timed out and they were plunged back into darkness. Kate dumped her bag at her feet and slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor with her legs tented in front of her. After the bottled beer she'd drunk at Castle's little going-away party, she was glad she'd gone to the bathroom. God only knew how long they'd be trapped in here.

Castle flicked his phone light back on to check where Kate was sitting before he slid down the wall, settling a foot or so away from her.

"I thought these buildings had emergency power," Castle said. "Some kind of backup."

Kate laughed faintly. "This place? Nah. Gotta be over a hundred years old. I don't think the department made it a priority to install a back-up generator or new elevator comms. Heating's shot. Building's practically held together with duct tape. You saw the state of our coffee machine."

"Great," Castle muttered.

When he sighed loudly, this got Kate's back up for all of its implications: trapped with her _and_ delayed from getting jiggy with his second ex-wife-slash-publisher-slash-whatever on his million thread count sheets with a private ocean view.

"Are we keeping you from something important?" she said archly.

"No." Castle's monosyllabic response was a flat denial. Well, it was certainly flat.

Kate's detective brain began to ping with curiosity. "So…you still haven't said why you came back. Did you forget something?"

Now that they had been trapped for a few minutes, her eyes were growing accustomed to the dark, and Kate could make out the faint outline of light around the doors. "I think we're stuck between floors," she said almost to herself. "Hopefully, someone figures it out and calls the Fire Department."

"Ever the strategizer," Castle said.

Kate whipped her head around despite not being able to see his face. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he said sullenly.

Kate turned her knees so that she could face him, again despite not actually being able to see his face. "No. No. You do _not_ get to do that."

"I can do whatever I like. We don't work together anymore. You're not the boss of me."

Kate fell silent. For the second time today she felt as if someone had punched her in the gut. Again, that person was Castle. "You never had any intention of coming back in the fall." She said the words aloud even as they dawned on her, leaving them to vibrate between them like an unexploded hand grenade.

Castle cleared his throat.

"Admit it. You were never coming back." Her voice had a high whine to it, notes of accusation and distress that flooded her cheeks with color when she played the statement back to herself. Quickly, she added, "Forget it. Forget I said anything. We'll get out of here, you can go find Gina, have a lovely summer, and we don't ever have to see one another again."

She scrambled to her feet and wedged herself into the corner as far away from Castle as she could get. "Come on. Come on. Dammit!" she chanted, prepared to offer up anything she had just to get out of this too-small metal box and away from the man she was beginning to realize had a grip on her heart.

"Lucky neither of us gets claustrophobic," Castle said. "Though there's a first time for everything."

"Look, there's enough space in here for both of us. If we just stick to our own corners…"

"Oh, come on, Beckett. That was never going to work." He laughed half-heartedly.

"What are you talking about?"

"Even with Tom and Gina in the picture, we manage to end up here."

"Stuck in an elevator during a blackout? Castle, if you credit the universe, I swear to God I will scream right now."

"Be my guest. Maybe someone will hear us. Get us out of this nightmare." There was a beat of silence before he added, "But deep down you know I'm right."

* * *

The elevator car had begun to get warm. With the power out, there was no air conditioning, no communication with the outside world, and no clue as to how long they would be stuck inside.

"Is it hot in here? It's hot in here, right?" she said, fanning her face with her hand.

Laconically, Castle replied, "No, it's just you. You're hot." The sharp intake of breath that followed confirmed that he hadn't meant to make this statement out loud.

"I'm ignoring that just so you know. Putting it down to the stress of the situation," Kate said.

"Much appreciated," Castle said, leaving Kate unexpectedly disappointed that he wasn't willing to argue the point with her.

She closed her eyes and started to count her breathing. Her shirt was sticking to her back, the white cotton no longer crisp as it had been just an hour ago. She wished she were home in her shower.

Alone.

A lie.

She wished she were braver when it came to her personal life.

She wished⏤

"Gina dumped me."

Great, now she was hearing things that weren't even there. Add auditory hallucination to illusory palinopsia. A shrink would have a field day. No more beer for Beckett.

"Did you hear what I just said? My ex-wife dumped me. Aren't you going to ask why?"

Kate froze.

The light on Castle's phone suddenly came back on. He shone it in her direction. She flinched and covered her eyes. "Can you get that thing out of my face?"

"Just checking you're still with us, Beckett."

"Why would I leave?" she muttered. "We're having so much fun."

Despite the light illuminating her face, Castle appeared to miss the sarcasm in her voice. "You said that already. Working with me this last year…you had a really good time. No take backs now, Beckett."

This was not fun. His tone had an edge that was making her nervous. "Goddammit with the light already," she snapped, batting it away. "You'll be breaking out the sodium pentothal next."

"Ah. Worried I'm going to get to the truth? Now there's an unpopular concept around here."

Kate froze for a second time. A bead of sweat ran down between her shoulder blades. "What are you babbling on about?" she said, blustering to fill the silence. "Do you think maybe we're running out of air?" She tugged at the collar of her shirt for effect since it was already unbuttoned.

Castle laughed. "Oh, Beckett. Now you're stealing my lines. Drama is _my_ coping mechanism, remember? I think yours is probably…I don't know…sarcasm?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "I wasn't being dramatic. The air conditioner is out, the ventilation is…not working well…ergo the air in here is getting stale. Less oxygen. More CO2. Maybe we're getting delirious."

"This entire conversation is making me delirious. Feels like a role reversal if ever I heard one. You're not known for your science lessons, and let's face it, your drama quotient is usually on the undetectable level no matter what mortal peril we find ourselves in."

Kate didn't respond. She waited, holding her breath, hoping he'd change the subject.

No such luck; Castle was no fool. "Low oxygen or not, I still know when I'm being snowed."

He turned the flashlight on and shone it her way.

"Why didn't you tell me you broke up with Demming?"

_TBC..._

* * *

_A/N: Illusory palinopsia: the persistence or recurrence of a visual image after the stimulus has been removed. An afterimage._

_Love to hear your thoughts. Chapter 2 is written and should be up in a couple of days. Thank you for reading. Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Liv_


	2. Chapter 2

The Elevator Pitch

Chapter 2

_"Why didn't you tell me you broke up with Demming?"_

Deathly silence settled on the already silent elevator car. Nothing inside the old building reached out a hand in friendship or loyalty to distract from Castle's question. No creaks, no groans, no settling joists or floorboards. Kate was beginning to think they might be the last two people on earth.

She frowned and looked down at her feet. She tucked her hair behind her ear. Hedging, feeling put on the spot, she started to jiggle her left knee. Anything but look at him even in the dark. Eventually, she cleared her throat and said, "How…how do you know about that?"

Castle roared in like a lion to fill the silence. "How do I _know?_ Because we ran into him down by the front desk and he asked where you were."

"Not in front of⏤"

"Mm-hmm." He nodded vigorously. "And when Gina told him that school's out and _we_," he said, indicating himself and Kate, "aren't joined at the hip anymore, Mister Robbery Detective helpfully informed her that he understood _I_ was supposed to be sweeping _you_ off to the Hamptons this weekend."

Kate closed her eyes. "Oh, God. Did Gina⏤"

"Gina's gone."

Kate came out of her corner and sank back down to the floor beside him. "I'm…Castle, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to mess things up for you. Tom must have put two and two together. Because he didn't hear any of that from me."

He waved her apology aside. When he spoke, he sounded resigned, matter-of-fact. All of the heat had left his voice. "Don't be sorry. It's fine. I'm surrounded by detectives. Nothing stays secret for long around here, right." He sniffed and shook his head. "Never would have worked out anyway. We've been down that road before and, believe me, there are plenty of good reasons why Gina and I got divorced."

Kate's relief at being forgiven was short lived. On hearing these last remarks, feelings of indignation resurfaced. She turned to face him. "So…then why did you invite her?" The wounded whine was back in her voice, but she didn't care.

Castle didn't answer her question immediately. In the confined space of the elevator, his silence was disconcerting; Kate was more used to being incapable of shutting him up.

Finally, he said, "When…when you said you needed a word before. When we were drinking with the guys and…you pulled me out." Castle blew out a breath. "What did you want to say to me?"

"You mean when your ex-wife showed up and draped herself all over you?" Kate shot back without even thinking about how it might sound.

She heard Castle turn his head towards her. The whisper of his neck against the collar of his shirt told her that he had whipped it around quickly. "Were you _jealous?_ Of _Gina?_"

"You were clearly jealous of Demming," Kate said in retaliation, making no attempt at denial.

Castle nodded slowly and then with more vigor. "Fine. Yes, I was jealous. Arrest me. I asked you to come with me to the Hamptons first. You turned me down, and that's your prerogative, obviously. But then you make a new plan to go on vacation with the Robbery Squad guy. Way to make your partner feel wanted."

At that moment, Kate was glad of the dark, of the blackout, and of the lack of witnesses. She found herself fighting a smile when she said, "Castle, this isn't seventh grade."

"I'm well aware of that," he said, sounding terse by comparison.

The accusation in his voice dissolved Kate's smile away to nothing. "What does that mean?" she demanded.

"It means that this is real life, Beckett. If…if you want me to stick around at least leave a note in my locker."

Kate smiled bashfully. "You don't⏤"

"I don't have a locker. Yeah, I'm aware. Why don't I have my own locker, Beckett?"

Now they were both smiling. Kate toyed with her hair, grateful Castle couldn't see. "I thought you were leaving. Your last case, remember? You'd had enough of us…of me," she added softly. "You've got a book to write…for Gina."

Before she finished speaking, Kate felt something touch her leg. She made a small gasping sound before realizing that it was Castle trying to find her hand. His fingers stroked her own, and she let him. He sought her out more confidently, fingers tangling before slipping between hers, curling up into her palm, curling her toes. She let him take her hand. Now it meant that she held his hand, too. Her heart began to race, and the heat in the elevator suddenly increased with a vengeance. It felt like a furnace inside that metal box.

Out of the darkness, Castle's voice, deep and quietly resonant, said, "Tell me what you wanted to say to me today. Please? You know me, Kate. The suspense is killing me."

"It wasn't killing you when Gina showed up. You couldn't get out of there fast enough." The bite in her voice was mostly hurt, and they could both hear it for what it was.

"I'm sorry. I was stupid. In my defense, if I may?" When Kate squeezed his fingers to tell him to go ahead, he said, "When you turned me down and then Alexis decided to ditch me, too⏤"

"For Princeton, Castle," she reminded him.

"Still. I didn't want to be alone," he admitted in a small voice. "It sounds pathetic, I know. But then all of a sudden, you're dating Demming after you lied and said you were out of vacation days and couldn't spend one weekend with me. My ego got the better of me, Beckett. I didn't want to throw a pity party for one out by the beach. So...when Gina called last night and we got chatting on the phone...that's no excuse. It's just pathetic. Believe me, I know how pathetic I am."

"Okay, nice mea culpa. It wasn't a lie about the vacation days. Not totally," Kate said. "But that aside, it's clear we've both been idiots."

"We're intelligent adults," Castle said, to which Kate made a scoffing sound which he wisely decided to ignore. "Why can't we just admit that there's something between us?"

Kate let go of his hand and Castle sighed audibly, assuming the worst. But she dropped her head to her knees, feeling half-faint and half needing time to think. Eventually, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Please don't make me regret this, okay?"

Castle turned towards her and his knee bumped her thigh. There was excitement in his voice when he said, "Name it. I promise you won't regret it."

Kate blew out a short puff of air to psych herself up. "_If_ we ever get out of here…"

"Yes?" he said eagerly.

"I will go to the Hamptons with you."

"Oh my God!" Castle squealed. He reached for her hand, holding it against his chest joined with his own. Her heart started pounding. "This is going to be so great. You will not⏤"

"On one condition," she added, cutting him off.

Castle reined in his excitement. "Like I said, name it."

"No more ex-wives, Castle. No more picking up random women on my cases, and…no…_no more_ naked women on the cover of the Nikki Heat."

"Is that last one a deal breaker because⏤"

Suddenly, the lights flickered on accompanied by a background hum of electricity. They turned to look at one another, blinking in the sudden glow from the overhead panel. Their noses were almost touching.

"When did you move so close to me?" Kate said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

Castle looked affronted. "I could ask you the same thing, detective. My mother would not be happy to hear that you tried to take advantage of me in a stalled elevator car."

The grinned at one another, their eyes twinkling. Kate's gaze flickered down to Castle's mouth and when it shot back up she found him watching her closely. He intensified his grip on her hand.

"I…I think I should say at this point before wires get crossed or some new disaster befalls us that…Kate, I don't want to spend just one weekend with you." He frowned to himself and added, "Or rather I do very much want to spend the weekend with you, but…I lied before when I said I wanted us to be friends."

"You don't want to be my friend, Castle?" She tried to keep her face straight and her voice suitably crestfallen, but as soon as he looked at her the game was up. She burst out laughing and slapped her hand on his thigh. "Your face," she said breathily. She looked so pleased with herself.

That was when Castle made his move. He slid his hand under her collar, fingers scorching the skin beneath her hair and gently drew her towards him. He skimmed her lips with his own, not really touching just hovering there, breathlessly waiting for her to decide. He felt Kate's grip tighten on his thigh, saw her look at him as if something had just clicked into place, and that's when he kissed her.

Their first kiss was slow and languid, though to her heart it felt anything but. They were so deeply absorbed in one another that they missed the first sounds of help arriving.

"Fire department! Anyone down there? Call out!" a deep male voice bellowed.

Reluctantly, they pulled apart. Castle groaned and dropped his head into the crook of her neck. Kate laughed quietly as she ran her hand over the back of his head, savoring the softness of his hair beneath her fingers and the warmth of his cheek pressed against her skin until later when she would make sure to be touching him again. Touching all of him.

"Help me up," she said, holding her hands out to him.

Castle sighed again and clambered to his feet then he hauled Kate upright, straight into his arms.

"Down here!" she yelled out.

"Yeah, down here. Get us out," Castle added, wrapping one arm around her waist more tightly while pounding on the elevator doors with his free hand.

He kissed her forehead in an unexpectedly tender gesture and cleared his throat. "Just to check, this is not…hey, I was bored and lonely when I was trapped in that elevator with you but now that we're out⏤"

Kate silenced this fear with a kiss neither of them would forget for a long time. They were still locked in an embrace when the elevator doors were pried open and a laser beam of torchlight flooded in from the floor above their heads.

"Got two love birds down here," the fireman yelled to one of his crew. "Pass me a harness and let's wedge these doors apart with a Halligan."

"Ladies first," Castle said with a smirk and a lift of his eyebrows.

"You just want an opportunity to stare at my ass, don't you?" Kate said.

When he grinned and nodded his head, she burst out laughing. "Maybe get a feel, too, if I'm lucky," he admitted, adding, "Purely in the interests of safety as I help you up, you understand."

Kate nodded slowly. "Safety, of course. In that case, I say gentlemen first. It's time we made a bid for equality around here."

The fireman interrupted them. "You want me to flip a coin?" he called down. "Look, I don't care who stares at whose ass. We got dispatch calls up the wazoo today. But if you're not ready, we can always leave you down there a little longer..." He gave Kate a wink.

* * *

Later that day as the sun prepared to set, they stood side-by-side on Castle's deck listening to the roar of the ocean, absorbing the steady vibration rising up through their bare feet as waves pounded the beach. He glanced at his phone before discreetly slipping it back into his pocket.

"Gina?" Kate said.

Castle let out a low rumble of laughter and turned to face her. "I'm not going to get anything past you, am I?"

"You haven't been getting anything past me for the last two years," she reminded him. "Not a problem, is it?"

Feeling bold, he skimmed her bare arm with the back of his knuckles, watching in fascination as a trail of goosebumps rose across her pale skin. He shook his head. "Not in the slightest. Life's complicated enough without keeping secrets, right?"

Kate took a sip of wine and stared out at the horizon. "On that note, I am sorry about Tom. About not telling you that I'd ended things with him. My strategizing, as you called it, didn't quite work out. But I've learned my lesson. Won't try to get all my ducks in a row next time."

"Why _did_ you break the Robbery Detective's heart?" Castle asked, fighting a grin.

Kate flicked his arm with her nail. "Don't be smug. It doesn't suit you."

Castle caught her finger and held on, using it to draw her closer to him. He wiggled his eyebrows. "Did I tell you that dress totally suits _you?_" he said, giving her a long, appreciative look.

The lemon-posset sundress clung to her body, the chiffon floating around her knees and thighs. The pale fabric was almost fine enough to see through. Since her back, chest, and arms were bare, Castle realized that this was as close to naked as he'd ever seen Kate Beckett, and she looked sensational.

The evening air was still warm, but Kate felt her skin flush the longer Castle looked at her. She had always known that he was attracted to her, but since this afternoon he had definitely become more open about it, allowing her to see his desire with more naked, serious intent. It was turning her on and dissolving her own boundaries to nothing. "You didn't have to. I already knew that you'd like it," Kate said confidently, making Castle laugh in surprise again.

"Knows all my tells already, huh?" He chuckled. "I'm not sure what to make of that."

"Is this weird?" Kate asked out of the blue. "Us being here. No work. Just..."

"Friends?" Castle said.

"I thought you didn't want to be my friend?" Kate said bravely. She put her glass down on the deck rail and turned to face him.

Castle wet his lips and swallowed roughly, but his eyes never strayed from her face. Not to the thin straps of her dress or to the low-cut neckline that exposed her natural cleavage. She was impressed by his sincerity despite the blip with Gina, which they were managing to move past at breakneck speed.

"I..." He cleared his throat. "I want to be your friend, Kate. I do." He held out his hand and she took it. "I think we could both use a friend." He lifted his eyebrows as if to ask the question, and Kate nodded in response. He took her other hand and drew her close to him so that their toes were almost touching. "But...I'd be lying if I said that was all I wanted us to be."

Kate licked her lips and pressed them together. "I see."

Castle tilted his head to watch her. His eyes seemed bluer than ever despite the warm glow from the sunset, which was now a riot of peaches and pinks. "Would that be a problem for you, detective?"

Kate smiled softly and quickly shook her head. When the breeze whipped her hair across her face, she let go of Castle's hand to smooth it away and tuck it behind her ear. "I just don't want..." She paused, frowning, searching for the right words.

Castle reached out, gently slipping a finger beneath her chin to tilt her head up so that they were looking at one another again. "Hey, what is it? You can tell me anything, Kate." He said this with such sincerity that it quite took her breath away.

"When you asked me to come out here with you, did you ever worry it might ruin what we already had? Our...partnership?"

"I can't say that was on my mind when I asked. It genuinely was a spur of the moment offer. You work so hard. I just wanted you to have a break for a change. You deserve it, Kate. But I don't want to put our partnership at risk, either. If you think being here as more than friends is going to ruin what we already have, we can stay friends. Nothing more. No hard feelings." He looked out at the water for a moment before turning back to her again. "Cards on the table?"

Kate nodded, willing to listen to whatever he had to say. She could feel herself getting more and more invested in him the longer they talked, touched and flirted. So she really hoped he had a plan.

"I love coming to work with you," he said. "It's not about the research or the books anymore. You've given my life real purpose, Kate. You open my eyes to so many terrible and wonderful things every day that I'm with you. Corny as it sounds, you've made me a better man, a better father, too."

She toed the wooden board beneath her feet, embarrassed by the string of compliments. "You've made my work life a lot more fun. Which is not something I imagine most homicide cops ever get to say. But you have. It's true. I'd really miss it if you weren't there."

"Miss it? Or miss me?" he probed.

"You're pushing your luck now, Castle." She grinned and her eyes flashed. "But yeah, I'd miss you," she confessed softly. "Of course, I'd miss you."

"So..." He took her hands in his again, swinging them gently. "Is this us agreeing to stay friends? Or..."

Kate wriggled her fingers out of his grasp and the light in Castle's eyes dimmed a little, though he put on a good show of not being disappointed. But then she lifted her arms and laid her hands on his shoulders, pausing briefly to look at him before sliding her arms around his neck and drawing him into a warm, inviting embrace. Hesitantly, Castle settled his hands on her waist.

Kate nudged his nose with her own. "We have the potential to be a lot of things." She leaned in until her lips were grazing his ear and whispered, "Friends, partners...we can be whatever we want to be."

When she found his mouth, dragging him into a breath-stealing kiss, Castle groaned with pure longing. He splayed his fingers wide, broad palms spanning her back, thumbs coasting up and down her sides, relishing the feel of her, finally. He slid his hands lower, fingers digging into the soft flesh of her ass, claiming her as he roughly pulled her to him. They both shuddered when their bodies collided, skin tingling, nerves coming alive as they ground up against one another.

"We'll make it work." Castle panted out the words between desperate, hungry kisses.

Kate braced herself against the guardrail and let her head fall back, allowing Castle to ravage her neck and chest with his lips and teeth while his body pressed hard against hers, anchoring her to the wooden deck rail. She ran her fingers through his hair, keeping her eyes tightly closed, giving herself over to the dizzying flood of sensations assaulting her entire body.

Out at the beach that sunny evening, she decided to believe in the power of new possibilities. She gave up strategizing, controlling and surrendered to fate as her partner slipped the strap of her sundress off her shoulder, sucking on her bare skin before kissing her cheek and whispering in her ear, "I promise, Kate. We'll make it work."

* * *

Without a word needing to be exchanged, they took a pause to slow things down. Castle went back inside to fetch the bottle of wine from the fridge. Once he had topped up their glasses, he turned around to find Kate leaning on the deck rail with her back to him. She was tracking the progress of the slowly sinking sun as if it was her first time on earth. For his part, Castle felt as though he was seeing his own corner of paradise through fresh eyes, _her eyes,_ and as he watched Kate for a second or two longer, he marveled at the twists of fate that had brought them to this place and this moment in their lives.

Eventually, he picked up their wine glasses and carried them across the deck to offer a toast. He held his glass aloft and the sun turned the rosé an even deeper shade of pink. "To blackouts and drama," he said. "May we navigate them together...with courage and style. Always."

Kate touched the rim of his glass with her own and took a sip. She squinted as a ray of sunshine flared high catching her off-guard. "Actually, I'd take the quiet life any day," she said, laughing as she waved her wine glass around them and added, "And by quiet I mean luxury like this, of course."

Castle beamed with pride and puffed out his chest. "Of course. You deserve nothing less."

They stared at one another for a long time, their eyes locked, searching each others' face, their pupils dilating with the drop in light and the skyrocket of sexual tension.

Kate gasped when she chanced a look over her shoulder and glimpsed the sun finally settling squat and fat on the horizon. Beams of light shot up and outwards, like a child's drawing. "I've got to hand it to you, Castle. You put on quite a show." She beckoned him closer. "Come on. Let's watch. Sun's almost gone," she said with more excitement than he'd heard from her in a long time.

So he took her glass, setting them both on a nearby table, and returned to stand behind her. He placed his hand high in the center of her bare back, massaging her shoulders and enjoying the warmth of her skin beneath her hair. He got a kick out of seeing her shiver when he trailed the tip of his finger down her spine. But the absolute best moment came when she didn't pull away, instead, she reached blindly behind her until she found his free hand and tugged him towards her, banding his arm across her stomach.

Castle needed no further invitation to nestle in close. With his feet planted either side of hers, he wrapped his arms around her body, holding her back tight against his chest, his chin nudged into her shoulder. He kissed her temple and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "This place already feels different with you here." He pressed a second kiss to her hair before adding, "Good different," to clarify what he meant.

She turned in his arms. Her back was to the sun when it finally slipped below the horizon, but she didn't care. There would be plenty more sunsets, of that she was confident. "I'll drink to good different," she said, then she kissed him slowly, teasing his lips apart with her tongue, sliding inside to taste him. Taking her time over everything.

Eventually, she drew back to look at him in the lavender light of dusk. The shadows were lengthening and the breeze was getting up. She had an expression of devilment on her face when she palmed his ass with both hands through the back pockets of his shorts and squeezed. "Now...tell me, Richard," she said, glancing past his ear at the stunning house that glowed like a beacon behind them, "does this mansion of yours have an elevator?"

_The End_

* * *

_A/N: Thank you for embracing this story. Love to hear your thoughts on chapter 2. If I don't respond to messages or reviews right away it's because FF is still not sending me any alerts. If anyone knows how to fix that I'd be grateful for advice. Thank you for your feedback so far. Have a great week, Liv_


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